Fun, Funky Garden Plants
I have a love for funky, fun and unique garden plants. Here’s one to try. It’s called Sea Holly, and it’s actually in the thistle family. Sea Holly is a perennial garden plant, which means you plant it once and it comes up year after year, somewhat depending on your climate.
This plant never did fail to bring attention And comments from people seeing my garden. It grows About 3-4 feet high, very branchy and the branches are A brilliant electric blue color. It’s stunning!
The only drawback to this lovely plant, in the fall you must cut it to the ground and burn or compost the plant. Do not let it go longer than that, or it will be casting seeds and you’ll soon discover it’s family trait o fbeing a thistle, if you know what I mean. The following spring, it’ll come back again to it’s beauty.
It is an easy plant to grow and does best with full sun, or as much sun as is available to you. I live in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. so we get a lot of rain And fairly mild summers and yet it seems to be enough For this plant. You can search for Sea Holly seeds in seed catalogs or sometimes you can find it in some nurseries. An internet search would surely find you a source for this lovely plant.
I thought I’d let you know about one of the coolest, funky plants for outdoors I’ve ever run across. It’s called Evening Scented Stock, it is NOT the common stock, however.
This is an annual plant, that needs to be sown early spring, directly into the soil where it is to bloom and grow. I recommend planting it nearby windows and doors, porches, etc. This plant really doesn’t look like much in and of itself, it’s not a pretty plant per se..but when about 5:00 PM rolls around watch it do its stuff! This plant has a VERY powerful fragrance similar to hyacinths or lilacs. At the gentlest breeze it sends a waft of fragrance to die for. This is why it’s so excellent to plant near a window, door or pathway. When you open up your screen in the evening, this will scent your entire house.
One place that I have found the seeds for this rare plant is at Fragrant Path, PO Box 328, Fort Calhoun, NE 68023
Here’s another one to try. This one is called Autumn Crocus.In this case you can tell a lot by it’s name. You generally purchase it as a bulb, which are usually quite large. It does return year after year without needing to re-plant it.
In the spring it shoots up a lot of foliage, this is preparing the plant for it’s autumn blooms, be sure to just leave this alone. Come about mid June or so, this foliage starts looking like it’s dying, again just leave it be. In late August/early September, when most of the flowers are past their prime and the garden is starting to look sparse, out comes the Autumn Crocus, with their beautiful lilac colored blooms. They bloom for quite a long time when few things are blooming. A fun plant, give it a try!
This one is an annual (only lives 1 growing season) plant called Love Lies Bleeding. It’s as strange as it’s name. It is very easy to grow. You just simply direct seed it in the soil (full sun preferably) where it is to grow in the spring. It’s height seems to vary greatly. I’ve seen it be as small as about 2 feet high, and reach up to 6 or7 feet high. It’s “flowers” are long, burgundy colored ropes that hang. It is simply stunning. Always gets attention! It will usually re-seed itself so you’ll get new plants the following year without doing anything. It’s best to try to find this seed in an unusual type seed catalog. It is in the amaranth family.
Here’s the last one. Ever tried the hellebore family? There are many varieties. They are perennial which means they come back year after year. These are best planted in shady areas, but where they will get sun in the winter, like under leafed trees or something of that nature.
What is so unusual about hellebores is that they Bloom somewhere between Dec. and March. There are very Few plants that do that! One variety is called a Christmas Rose. It’s quite striking to see flowers in the midst sometimes of snow. These plants usually must be purchased at a nursery. Check out your local nursery for this wonderful family of plants.
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Tags: care, flowering, flowers, gardening, gardens, growing, horticulture, Plant, planting, plants, pruning, tips
August 21st, 2005 at 12:39 am
sweet! that looked easy, loved it when he said- “that’s it?” lol. what about planting in pots if u live in an apartment?
August 21st, 2005 at 12:45 am
Finally some help that I can understand. This is so cool! I thought that gardening was too hard and took up too much time for my busy schedule. Gardening isn’t just for my grandma anymore!!!!!
August 21st, 2005 at 1:22 am
Both will survive inside during winter. Both root easily (and will grow happily) in water (use clear container.)
A few other annuals that overwinter inside:
Geranium
Begonia
Hoya
Hibiscus
Dichondra
August 21st, 2005 at 2:15 am
recycled water? whats the water from a nuclear reactor. don't use that but if its from anything that would have nutriants it would be real advantages. as long as its not toxic waste are full of oil are something like that
August 22nd, 2005 at 2:13 am
If you grow plants under different colors of cellophane it will affect their biomass. Since chlorophyll is the predominant pigment in most plants (all the green ones), the plants whose chlorophyll is most efficient will have more energy and grow faster. Chlorophyll absorbs red light most efficiently, and green light least efficiently, so a decent hypothesis to make would be that the plant under the red filter would grow the best, purple or orange might be second best, blue or yellow might be third, and green would be worst.
August 22nd, 2005 at 1:15 pm
Agave, cactus, ephedra, nolina=bear grass, many types of yucca, our Lord's candle, chamise, manzanita, desert holly, red barberry, ceanothos, Texas ranger, hollyleaf cherry, catalina cherry, lemonade berry, California buckwheat, needlegrass, sage, coffeebery, columbine, dudleya, fescue, iris, snowberry, desert marigold, chocolate daisy, pink fairyduster, and many, many more!
Try the Arizona Native Plant Society, P. O. Box 41206, Sun Station, Tucson, AZ 85704
August 22nd, 2005 at 5:55 pm
Oregano is such an easy herb! The benefit is that is can be used for such a wide variety of things, and it is a perennial so it will come back every year!
Other no brainers (and I know this from my own personal experience) is lemon verbena, thyme (lemon thyme as well) rosemary, mint, and lavender, and basil.
I have had some troubles with sage, but maybe it doesn't like Ohio weather, so the humid/hot might be good for it! Pretty much any herb is workable, just buy from a good source (preferably a farmer's market) and read any labels. I know having them indoors vs. outdoors makes a difference as well, so what I share is just from having outdoor herbs. (I just dug up the ground, plopped them in, and they lived!)
Good luck!
August 23rd, 2005 at 12:58 am
Garden Web…. they've got forums for everything and the advice from their 'regular' folks is pretty darned good!…
http://www.gardenweb.com/
clik on 'gardenweb forums' to get started….
August 23rd, 2005 at 12:32 pm
think outside the box remember all the mark brothers and most large outlet stores have there own garden shop — get a job there!!!
August 23rd, 2005 at 6:12 pm
if you want color, you will have to plant annuals, which are beautiful but must be replanted every year (that's why they are called annuals). If you want greenery, then perennials are your best best. Perennials are good in that they come back every year, but they aren't very colorful. It sounds like you live in a pretty mild climate, so you might have luck with the annuals, they may not ever die on you. I like snapdragons, peonies (very fragrant and much easier to grow than roses) and gardenias. For perennials, nothing beats the hardy mum.
August 24th, 2005 at 10:37 am
Better homes & garden has a free interactive landscape planing website. You'll have register to log on to their website (You don't need to buy anything or subscribe to their magazine).
"Plan-a-Garden lets you design anything from a patio-side container garden to your whole yard. Use your mouse to "drag-and-drop" more than 150 trees, shrubs, and flowers. Add dozens of structures like buildings, sheds, fences, decks — even a pond."
P.S. You may also have to close their magazine ad. by clicking on the x
http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/bhg/story/data/planagardenhome_03022002.xml
Garden Styles & Plans from Better Homes & Garden:
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/special-spots/foundation-garden-plan/
Plans from HGTV:
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_landscaping_design/
Lowe's Landscape & Garden planner
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=pg&p=Down_to_Earth/GardenPlanner/gardenplansplash.html&rn=none3D
Garden planner
http://www.gardencomposer.com/demo-planner-1.html (demo)
http://www.gardencomposer.com/demo-planner-15.html
BBC Gardening- Virtual Design
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/virtualgarden_index.shtml
DIY Planner
http://www.curbly.com/DIY-Maven/posts/1496-FREE-On-Line-Garden-Planner
Thought you'd like to see some landscaping design ideas from this Just Gardeners website:
http://justgardeners.com/hrsc/articles/art_landscape-design.html
This site contains a gallery of forum users's own pics too:
http://justgardeners.com/hrsc/ourgardens/ourgarden_pages/ourgardens_cornus.html
http://justgardeners.com/hrsc/ourgardens/ourgarden_pages/ourgardens_donnalockman.html
http://justgardeners.com/hrsc/ourgardens/ourgarden_pages/ourgardens_jill.html
Garden Web's Landscape-design forum:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/design/
Good luck!!! Hope this is helpful.